


Unexpected Circumstances

by TheLoneRebels



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Baby Ezras in the house!, F/M, Facepalm when guys are being guys, Force dodge ball? Bring it!, Incoming smut, Rebels Sequel, Romantic Fluff, Sabezra - Freeform, erzrabine, rexsoka, the True Love of Soulmates lasts Forever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:55:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25373482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLoneRebels/pseuds/TheLoneRebels
Summary: Seven years after Ezra saved Lothal, Sabine, Ahsoka, and Rex finally find him on Csilla, the Chiss homeworld. Hoping to bring their friend home, things don't go exactly as they plan.M for now. Rating will go up when the lemons show up! :P
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano, Ezra Bridger/Sabine Wren
Comments: 54
Kudos: 98





	1. Prologue and Found

**Hello there!**

**Thank you all soooooo much for checking out my story! If you like it, it's very inspiring to me if you let me know in some way, and thank you in advance for every kudos, sub, or nice review; they're my own version of caffeine. :D :D :D :D :D**

**For those who really wish I would write a one shot of their idea or would just really like to see a certain story bump up to the top of my rotation, check out the pinned post on my Facebook page, TheLoneRebel's Stories, for info. You can also find my updating schedule there and blurbs from some of my chapters. :D**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own any Star Wars characters and any OC's that resemble real people are entirely coincidental.**

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**There is an explanation of how my calendar works and a list of helpful translations for my commonly used Star Wars words in 'Flame of Hope - Everyone' if you're curious.**

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**A/N: This story is for my 2019 reward winner, V Emperor of Mankind. Thank you so much for being one of my best supporters. (And for all the hot chocolates!)**

**As usual, my story is a mix of canon and legends and whatever else I feel like making up, so I expect you all to just go with it. :P**

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**A/N 2: For those who have read this before, I am expanding this story with new scenes and a longer plot.**

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**Unexpected Circumstances **

**Prologue:**

_D226/4 ABY, Somewhere in hyperspace & Lothal. _

**"I've got a lead."**

"You don't."

**_"I do."_ **

"No fragging way!"

**"Way."**

"Holy haran!"

**"Perhaps not quite that dramatic, but definitely something I think is worth investigating."**

"You have no idea how happy I am to hear that."

**"Oh, I think I have at least an inkling."**

"Yeah, I guess you do… I want to go with you."

**"Of course."**

"My work here is done. The war is basically over. Lothal is safe and flourishing. I want to help you search."

**"Of course."**

"I mean, I've done everything I can think of that Ezra could possibly be counting on me to do. So… surely it's okay if I leave Lothal now?"

**"Sabine… I said, of course. I'm already on my way to pick you up. I knew you'd want to come with me now."**

"Oh… Thank you, Ahsoka. I'm just… And it's been five…"

**"I know. Have faith. We'll find him."**

"Thank you."

**"I'll be there in twelve hours. I just left Home One after giving High Command my reports and picking up Rex. The Kaminoans have finally finished their research and he's now on shots to start gradually reversing his age to something closer to what it should be."**

"That's great! I'm happy that you'll get more time with Rex now. I'll see you both soon, then?"

**"Yes. And Sabine?"**

"Yes?"

**"Pack cold weather gear."**

* * *

**_Found:_ **

_2 years, many false trails, and crazy adventures later…_

Sabine, Ahsoka, and Rex stared out the transparisteel window of their ship at the white and silver planet below them with near disbelief. It came with a far off sun, three moons, an orbiting space station with many unfamiliar ships docked on it, and a small fleet of familiar Star Destroyers floating nearby.

Eventually, the clone with a dyed blond buzz cut muttered from his position of leaning on the back of Ahsoka's chair, "I can't believe we finally found this Forceforsaken ball of ice."

Ahsoka patted the hand he had on her shoulder, then turned to her friend and smiled with a grand gesture. "Sabine Wren, may I finally present to you… My lead! One ice covered Chiss homeworld!"

The armoured woman nodded graciously, the twitching at the corner of her mouth threatening to ruin her serious expression. "I accept your lead, Ahsoka Tano, with my eternal thanks."

The Togrutan dipped her pointed white and blue montrals downwards as she nodded in return. "You're welcome. Now let's just hope that they know what happened to Ezra."

Like it had been summoned by her words, the comm light on the console lit up and chimed, indicating an incoming transmission. The women glanced at each other with a 'here goes' look, and then Sabine reached forward and pushed a button to answer.

A voice spoke in a language that they'd heard only a few times during their search for Thrawn and Ezra; always from a blue skinned Chiss, and only ever to their own kind. To anyone else, the Chiss spoke Sy Bisti, which Sabine had learned long ago, during her bounty hunter days while traveling the dregs of the Outer Rim.

Not understanding the words spoken, but the tone clearly implying something along the lines of, 'state your business here!', Sabine responded in the multisyllabic trade language of Sy Bisti, hoping that they understood it here as well. "We're not here to cause any trouble. We are looking for a friend of ours. He would have come on one of those Imperial ships you have parked over your planet, and he is a Human called Ezra Bridger."

There was silence for a good twenty seconds, and then the voice replied in the same language, "Please wait." And the transmission ended, light blinking off on the console.

The girls looked at each other and shrugged. "I guess we wait," Ahsoka said in a dry tone.

"Yes, but for how long?" Rex asked, sliding his forearms under Ahsoka's long lekku, hugging her upper chest, and resting his clean-shaven chin between her montrals.

"Does it matter? We're finally here. Have patience, love," Ahsoka said in a tone full of chiding affection, one elegant hand squeezing his muscled forearm.

Sabine barked out a laugh as she settled against the back of her chair again. "You know, if I had a credit for every time you said the word patience since you first started looking for Ezra seven years ago, I think I'd be a millionaire by now."

Ahsoka merely raised an amused eyebrow marking. "And if you had stayed at home and continued painting, you actually WOULD be a millionaire by now."

Sabine wrinkled her nose at the older woman. "Point taken. But I don't regret my choice to…"

The comm chimed again before she could finish her sentence.

Sabine answered it again. "Yes?" she said in Sy Bisti.

"Do you speak Basic?" a new male voice answered back.

"Of course," Sabine said, switching to the language that was so ingrained in her that she even thought in it, even before her native Mando'a.

"Excellent," the male replied. "I had assumed as much, since you said you were looking for a Human. My name is Eli Vanto, and I am Second in Command to the one you may know as Thrawn."

"That's lovely," Sabine said, a hint of sarcasm leaking into her tone. "But we're looking for information on an Ezra Bridger. Do you…"

"Of course," he cut her off. "I got your message the first time. But you interrupted me before I could finish my little speech."

"Sorry," Sabine said, only slightly so. Ahsoka shot her a chiding look that the impatient Mandalorian chose to ignore.

"Now, as I was about to say; Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo and General Bridger are down on the planet right now."

Sabine practically melted into her chair in relief that they didn't have to look any further. And she was more than a little impressed with Ezra's rank, considering he'd gone with Thrawn as an enemy.

And then Vanto continued, and his words had her sitting bolt upright again.

"You're timing is actually quite fortunate; we're only just home for a one week rest and resupply before we head back out to the war."

Sabine and Ahsoka glanced at each other in alarm. "War?" Sabine asked Vanto a second later.

"Yes, war. The Chiss and their allies, the Grysk, are the only things standing between an invasion by a truly nasty species that come from the next galaxy over. Funny thing is that we used to think that the Grysk were the enemy, but they were just doing the same thing the Chiss were; checking out the Empire to see if it was a worthy ally to recruit for their fight against the Yuuzhan Vong. If it weren't for the Chiss' and the Grysk's efforts of the last thirty years, the Core planets would have been taken long ago."

"Well, frag."

"Exactly. You didn't think Mitth'raw'nuruodo would have acquired and kept so many of these Imperial ships and all of their people just for the fun of it, did you?"

"Honestly, yes. We don't exactly have a good relationship with him," Sabine said dryly.

"I see. I'm guessing since you're friends with Ezra, then you must have been Rebels."

"That… would be correct."

"No matter. The latest rumours say that the Empire is no more and we're not exactly affiliated with them anymore anyway. We have a small habit of stealing their ships whenever they wander this way. They make such good cannon fodder to throw at the YV's."

"Ha. That's hilarious," she said, even as Ahsoka and Rex snickered quietly in the background. "And you're right about the rumours. The Empire has been defeated."

"Interesting. Even with Project Stardust on their side?"

Sabine blinked. _How does this guy know about Stardust? Oh. Thrawn must have known._ "Even with. We took out both of the Death Stars that the Emperor built."

"Hunh. That's a pity. Mitth'raw'nuruodo was hoping to use that technology against the Yuuzhan Vong. But obviously not, if it is so easily defeated."

"Oh, it wasn't easy."

"Whatever. You can tell Mitth'raw'nuruodo when he asks, which I'm sure he will. I'm assuming you would like to go see your friend?"

"You assume correctly. We'd like to take him home, in fact."

"Uhhhhh. As to that, I'm not exactly sure he would want to go."

A sense of dread filled Sabine, clamping down on her chest in an imaginary vice. "Why is that?"

"Because of his children, of course."

"His WHAT?!" Sabine's vision literally turned red with alarm and jealousy.

"I think… I think it's best if he explains himself."

"He might not survive to explain," Sabine muttered under her breath, earning a quiet huff of laughter from her friend with the incredibly sensitive hearing. Out loud, she merely said, "All right. How soon can we see him?"

"Right away. A message was sent as soon as you asked for him. He'll be waiting for you down on the main landing pad of Csaplar, their capital city. I'm sending you the coordinates now. Enjoy your visit. Oh, and dress warmly. It's a two minute trip of freezing hell from the landing pad to the entrance to the city."

"Thanks for the warning."

"You're welcome."

Just as Sabine was reaching to turn off the comm, Vanto spoke again. "Can I ask who I'm talking to? I'm curious."

"Of course. How rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Lady Sabine Wren of Clan Wren of House Vizsla. And with me is Grand Master Ahsoka Tano, of the New Jedi Order, and her husband, General Rex Tano of the New Republic Army."

"Hello," Ahsoka said, speaking for the first time.

"Yo," Rex added.

"Impressive credentials. And expected, actually."

Sabine raised a brow in surprise. _Really?_

Vanto's voice continued on. "Ezra has talked about the lot of you for as long as I've known him. He's always said that Master Tano would find him one day, since Mitth'raw'nuruodo refused to let him go, and then more or less trapped him into wanting to stay. And as for you, Lady Wren, Ezra regards you as his best friend in the whole galaxy, and your time apart hasn't changed that. He's always blathering on about how you would do something if you were in the same situation, and we've actually been inspired by some of his stories to use in our own battle tactics. You're kind of famous now amongst the crews of the ISDs and the Chiss army, known as 'Ezra's Kickass Imaginary Girlfriend'."

Sabine went through a whole range of emotions during that little speech; from rage that Thrawn had trapped Ezra somehow, to relief that Ezra still considered her his best friend, to pride in him for using her as inspiration, to a sense of tingly warmth at her title that left her a little embarrassed and hopeful that his 'children', whatever they were, weren't as serious as it sounded.

To Vanto, she merely said, "That's nice. We're heading down to the surface now, if that's all right with you?"

"It is. It was nice to talk to the infamous Wren girl. Now I have to go tell everyone that you actually exist. A lot of credits are going to be changing hands today."

"You do that." Sabine turned off the comm with a shake of her head. She turned to Ahsoka, who'd already started flying the T-6 towards the surface, prompting Rex to take his seat again. "Did he really say that Ezra has kids?"

"It sure sounded like it, didn't it?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

Ahsoka shot her a smile as she entered the cloudy atmosphere. "Maybe you shouldn't worry too much yet. There could be a good explanation that doesn't involve him falling for someone else."

Sabine crossed her arms over her multicoloured chest armour that heavily featured the same blue as Ezra's eyes and basically sulked like a youngling. "I hope you're right," she grumbled. _Or I just wasted seven years of my life pining after someone who's already moved on._

* * *

_Previously, on Csilla..._

“… We’re holding them at bay for now, but we will need more battleships soon or we WILL lose ground…”

Ezra lost track of Thrawn’s report to the Chiss Ascendancy as a sense of something important about to happen struck him with a tingle of awareness up his spine, making the fine hairs on his nape stand on end. It was a sensation he was well familiar with, having been granted warnings from the Force for as long as he could remember. 

Closing his eyes, the Jedi Knight sank deeper into his sense of the Force to try and catch what the warning was for.

 _“Coming. She’s coming…”_ the Force whispered. Or at least that’s what he got the impression of anyway. Maybe the Force didn’t speak in actual words, but he’d learned to interpret the impressions it gave him fairly accurately after so many years of frequent visions.

Ezra, of course, knew who he wanted to be coming, but the Force had played with him many times in the past, giving him dreams and visions of Sabine and him together again, so he wasn’t counting on this warning as anything but as it was literally meant; a ‘she’ was coming. It could be Ahsoka, which would be almost as good as Sabine, or it could be that Chiss princess who kept pursuing him whenever he was planetside despite being turned down multiple times.

Thankfully, he wasn’t on Csilla very often, what with the long-running war against the Yuuzhan Vong.

Just for laughs, Ezra pushed his senses out from the underground palace they were in, up to the surface of the planet, and all the way out into space, in a similar way to how he’d learned to search for empty spaces in the Force that indicated an enemy ship or fleet.

Except, this time he didn’t find a void, but three familiar beacons in the Force, with one shining decidedly brighter than the other two, her strong Force presence like a miniature sun. He didn’t focus on the brilliant signature of Ahsoka Tano, though, because he was - as he had always been – drawn to the girl whose Force aura shimmered like a beautiful opalescent pearl.

Ezra gasped, joy filling him beyond measure. His eyes opened and found Thrawn, the other Admirals and Generals of the War Council, and the entire Aristocra of planetary leaders looking at Ezra with curious and patient red eyes. (His visions were quite legendary by now and they forgave him for zoning out on occasion since they were usually helpful for the species’ continued survival.)

Thrawn, being closest to Ezra, both in familiarity and literally, standing right beside him as he gave his report, raised a thin, dark blue eyebrow. “News from the Force?” he asked teasingly in his dry and deliberately drawled out voice.

Ecstatic energy had Ezra popping up to his feet at the massive round table that accommodated up to fifty people. He nodded quickly. “Yes!” just as a political aide slunk into the conference room and made for Ezra.

All eyes turned to the young man, who flushed a darker blue with embarrassment at being singled out. Ezra had a really good feeling that he already knew what the aide was going to say, but waited patiently for him to arrive at his side.

“Sir, there’s a ship in orbit with outsiders in it looking for you,” he said quietly. But since sound carried in the big chamber and it was already dead silent, everyone heard.

“Thank you,” Ezra nodded graciously.

“General Vanto says he will send them to the landing pad on the surface.”

Ezra nodded again and the aide quickly took his leave, walking as briskly as possible. All eyes turned back to Ezra.

The Jedi Knight blinked once and schooled his features back into the composed and serene look they expected of him. “It seems that my friends have finally managed to locate me, despite the hidden nature of your world. If you will excuse me, I will go greet them.”

“You are excused,” Grand Admiral Thrawn said dryly. As head of the War Council, he had the same ranking as the Aristocra, and thus the authority to grant special privileges to the Human Jedi that most everyone saw as Thrawn’s pet despite Ezra’s status as a General himself. “Please bring your friends to the Palace for dinner. I’m sure we would all like to meet them.”

Ezra nodded again. “I will.”

And then he was rushing from the room in a fashion only a hair more dignified than the poor aide had, _SABINE!_ the only thought on his mind.

* * *

Ezra practically vibrated with impatience as he watched the fan shaped ship come in for a landing on the long and narrow strip of flat land surrounded by tall mountain peaks that already held a dozen or more shuttles of Imperial and Chiss design. The red and white ship's wings moved from a vertical to a horizontal position as it landed with a gentle touch to the hard packed snow at the front of the line where another shuttle must have left recently. His curiosity over the unfamiliar ship design was far exceeded by his excitement over who was IN the ship.

Because he could FEEL her. Feel her distinctive and vibrant Force presence.

In fact, he'd felt her as soon as the ship had settled above the planet and had already been booting it for the surface when he'd received the comm message that someone was here asking for him. He'd been so excited that he'd nearly left the warmth of the underground city without putting on protective outerwear. (Thank the Force for the guards, who hadn't let him leave without getting dressed.)

His beautiful, smart, and talented warrior goddess was HERE. Actually HERE.

He'd never expected to see her here. Ahsoka, yes, because she'd promised. But not Sabine.

Not Sabine, who had better things to do with her life than fly around the galaxy looking for him. Not Sabine, who surely had found someone else to love by now. Not Sabine, who had firmly kept him in the friend zone for four agonizing years. Not Sabine, who had featured in his fantasies and dreams since he was fourteen years old.

No. He'd never expected to see her here. And any dreams or visions that he'd had of her here on Csilla with him he'd dismissed as wishful thinking. He'd always thought that he'd have to leave everything he'd come to love about living here to go see her again. And expecting it to only be a visit, just to confirm that she was completely attached to someone else so that he could finally move on with his life. Maybe accept one of the many offers of marriage that had never been quite tempting enough to make him stray from his devotion to a woman he only ever saw in his dreams.

Now… Now, hopefully he wouldn't have to settle for something less than perfection. Now he had another chance to win Sabine. Because she came to look for him, and that meant something.

 _Actually, it means EVERYTHING,_ he thought with a ridiculous amount of hope blooming through his heart.

After what felt like an eternity, a ramp finally started to lower and Ezra jogged over to stand under the wing, bouncing impatiently on his toes. _Come on, come on! Open already!_

And then, like a goddess from above, a familiar slender but shapely figure was outlined by the light behind her, helmet tucked under her arm, just like always, and all of the tension seeped from his body as a sense of relief and calm swept over him. _Sabine._

She walked down the ramp almost slowly, the shadowing light revealing more of her with each step downwards. Her boots hadn't changed, except to maybe be a newer pair. Same circles of ammo around her calves, same armour on her knees. Different body suit, more black, but it still hugged her like a second skin. Same belts and blasters. Helmet darker and with a new pattern on it. Same chest armour, but painted differently. Also darker. Lots of blue and dark colours. _Coincidence? I hope not._ Fingerless gloves and vambraces all black now. Elbow and shoulder guards also painted differently, but the Rebellion starbird still proudly featured.

And then, with one more step, the light revealed her face, and his heart stuttered to a stop.

Because she was even more beautiful than he remembered; purple and blue shoulder length hair framing a face slightly leaner, emphasizing her jawline and cheekbones more, her lips parted slightly and curling up into a tentative smile, and her gorgeous amber eyes somehow looking even bigger than ever as she swept her gaze over him and then came to a stop at his own eyes at the same time that her feet did on the ramp, leaving them at the same height.

_Force, she's still perfection._


	2. Reunited

**Reunited:**

Sabine abandoned her chair as soon as she saw the bundled figure standing in the halo of an overhead light on the snow-covered landing pad, snatching up her helmet from the floor beside her out of habit and running towards the back of the ship and the exit.

"Sabine!" Ahsoka yelled while still landing the ship. "Put your coat on at least!"

Sabine ignored her, the possible cold of outside the last thing on her mind. All she could think was, _Ezra, Ezra, Ezra. I'm finally going to see Ezra again!_

Somehow, she made herself wait for the shuttle to actually touch the ground before she hit the release button on the ramp, but it was only by a fraction of a second. And then she had to wait what felt like about three years for the ramp's hydraulics to actually finish lowering it.

And then, finally, finally, she could see him, and she nearly froze, her limbs moving in near slow motion as she descended the ramp, eyes only on his figure.

What she could see of it, anyway. He was covered up in a really thick navy blue winter coat with a furry hood pulled over his head.

At first glance, he seemed taller than she remembered, and that was confirmed as she stopped at eye height with him, while still standing on the ramp. His shoulders looked broader under the coat. His calves thicker with muscle under his black trousers. His face was more chiselled and looked all man and no longer the boy she'd known. He'd kept it clean-shaven, much to her relief (she'd never been a fan of beards), showing off the hard line of his jaw. His lips were soft looking and parted on a caught inhale. His nose, long and proud. Cheekbones you could practically cut yourself on. High forehead with a longish lock of midnight blue hair peeking out from the hood. _Stars, he's practically holomovie handsome now!_

And his eyes. Those one-of-a-kind sapphire blue eyes framed by pretty black lashes. They were drinking her in like he'd never stop.

She didn't want him to stop.

They stared at each other without making a sound for endless seconds of frozen time. She didn't feel the subzero wind freezing the skin of her face and fingers. (Her bodysuit was spaceworthy, so the rest of her was okay.) Didn't hear the sound of it rustling the snow-covered trees. Didn't hear Ahsoka and Rex approaching the ramp behind her.

Her whole world was Ezra's eyes.

And then he whispered her name.

"Sabine."

And she thought, _Kriff it,_ as she dropped her helmet in the snow and launched herself at him, nearly sending them both to the ground as he stumbled backwards, hands coming up hastily to catch her.

Sabine hugged his neck tight as his arms tightened almost painfully around her back, and she mumbled into his coat. "Ezra. Shab, I missed you, Ez. It's been so long. So very very long."

He curled around her and buried his face in her shoulder, breathing in her familiar scent of paint, dye, generic soap, and warm female. "Force, Sabie, has it ever. I missed you too," he mumbled back. "So very very much. I'm sorry. So sorry. I didn't think we'd be apart this long. Didn't think it would end up this way."

Sabine sucked in a breath and pulled back a bit, looking up at him with a hint of tears held stubbornly back in her eyes. "I know you did what you had to, and it possibly saved the entire Rebellion…" she pulled back an arm and punched him as hard as she could in the shoulder, "…but why didn't you tell me what the plan was! I thought I lost you forever! We all did, until Chopper played your message."

Ezra rubbed at his shoulder, grimacing more from the pain of her accusation than from her hit (which hurt enough, even with his thick coat on). "I… I don't really have a good reason for that, other than I was afraid it wouldn't work, that the Purrgil wouldn't show up like they said they would. I'm sorry I caused you pain."

She stared at him for a moment before huffing out a sigh. "Whatever. It's done." She stepped forward again and wrapped her arms around his waist, unconsciously burying them under the back of this coat and gripping a soft tunic as her fingers protested the cold. As she snuggled her face into his chest she realized where her hands had ended up and found that she liked them there very much, unclenching her fingers to press against the hard muscles of his back.

Knowing that was as close as she was ever going to get to saying she forgave him for being an idiot, Ezra exhaled in relief and wrapped her small but powerful form back into his embrace, resting his cheek against her soft hair. _Home._ Sabine was the feeling of home that he'd never quite been able to find here on Csilla or on the Chimaera, no matter how many years he spent on them.

He closed his eyes and just savoured the moment for a while, until a softly cleared throat had his eyes popping open and a rueful grin curving his mouth upwards.

Ahsoka was standing at the base of the ramp, bundled from pointy montrals to booted feet, with a second winter coat folded over her arm and spare mittens in her own mittened hands. She had an eyebrow marking raised in amusement and her mouth quirked up in a knowing smirk. Beside her, also bundled up, was a grinning man holding Sabine's helmet that Ezra almost didn't recognize, until he met the golden brown eyes and read his Force signature. _Rex?! He looks at least a decade younger than the last time I saw him! In fact, he looks about the same age as Ahsoka now; mid-forties at most. They must have finally found a cure for his rapid aging gene. I'm sure they're happy about that. Now they have decades left together instead of just a handful of years._

Ezra reluctantly grabbed Sabine's shoulders and pushed her back a step, mourning the loss of her little hands against his back, even if there was still a barrier of fabric between them, nodding his head at Ahsoka. "You should put your coat on before your ears freeze."

Sabine blinked, and just like that, she finally registered just how kriffing cold it was. It was even worse than Hoth, and she'd thought that was bad. She was reaching for her coat in an instant as a full body shiver ran down her spine. "Right. Coat. Good idea."

Ahsoka handed her the thick mittens as soon as Sabine was zipped into her coat while actually looking at the young man whose cheekbones were still faintly flushed red. "It's good to see you looking well, Ezra, and even more grown up than the last time."

Ezra grinned. "You too, Ahsoka. I hope we don't skip yet another handful of years between visits this time. That would be an awful habit to get into."

"It would."

Ezra turned his gaze to Rex next. "And you, Rex. You look great! Unlike the rest of us, time looks like it's going backwards on you!"

Rex chuckled, handing Sabine her helmet when she held a hand out for it. "Only to this point. I should start aging forwards again normally now, if the Kaminoans did their research right. I would hate to get even younger and leave my Soka looking the older one; something tells me she wouldn't like that very much."

The girls laughed as Ahsoka elbowed him in the ribs gently. "You're probably right, Rexi." The Togruta focused on Ezra again as her face settled back into serious. "Should we bring our bags or leave them here?"

Ezra only had to think about that for a millisecond. "Bring your bags. You can stay with me for a few days in the nice warm city, as long as you're not in a hurry to get back home?"

Ahsoka laughed, shaking her head as she turned and started back up the ramp. "This ship has basically been our home for seven years. We always welcome the chance to sleep elsewhere."

Ezra winced as he followed behind the trio into a ship even smaller than the Ghost, knowing he was the reason they'd been living in it for so long. "Right. Well, I have a huge apartment and I'm sure you'll enjoy the space to stretch your legs."

Sabine paused until Ezra stepped beside her and bumped his shoulder with hers, grinning up at him. "You have no idea."

* * *

Once they'd grabbed their things, Ezra herded them all onto a hovering speeder that was basically just a platform with rails to hang on to, and then they were off, zipping through a white and blue world.

Vanto had been right about the temperature; Sabine's face felt like a block of ice from the wind-chill in about thirty seconds.

Ezra drove their transport through a naturally zigzagging pathway that led between towering mountains and soon descended into a steep and narrow canyon.

There were gun turrets mounted at the top of the walls that automatically followed their progress.

Sabine approved of the security measures.

At the end of the canyon, Ezra came to a stop at what looked like a solid wall of blue tinted ice. He talked into a comm unit on his wrist in the Chiss language that she vowed to learn as soon as possible and then waved at a tiny security camera mounted at the top of the ice in thanks when the wall of ice folded down to the ground, exposing a long, well lit tunnel that angled downwards.

Ezra drove into the noticeably warmer tunnel and stopped again beside a metal door cut into the rock. As Sabine pushed her hood off her head, he shrugged out of his winter coat and tossed it to a Chiss guard dressed in a white uniform and armed to the teeth who stepped out of the door. Ezra called out what she assumed to be a thank you to the guard, who caught the coat with a grin and gave Ezra a jaunty salute.

Sabine spent a good second just absorbing how incredible Ezra looked in his own white uniform jacket that showed off his broad shoulders, muscled chest, and narrow waist to absolute perfection. A black leather belt holding a blaster and a lightsabre, just like before, was wrapped around his waist. And his midnight blue hair was cut somewhere between the too short version he'd left with and the too shaggy version she'd first met him with, leaving him with soft waves on his head. It was perfect. He was perfect. _Whoa._ Her hormones started jumping around in her stomach like a flock of butterflies had taken up residence.

The guard nodded his chin at Sabine, and said something else that she added to her growing list of memorized Chiss words for later translation. The way Ezra blushed and nodded, she assumed the guard was asking if Sabine was Ezra's 'Kickass Invisible Girlfriend'.

The guard laughed approvingly, sweeping his gaze over Ahsoka and Rex as well in curiosity, and then stepped back into the room. Sabine just caught sight of another dozen or so guards dressed exactly the same as the first one, sitting around a big table and playing cards of some sort.

"They take their security seriously here," Sabine said approvingly as Ezra drove on.

He glanced down at her, wearing that dopey grin that she loved and had missed so much. "Yes, they do. I thought you'd approve. They have enemies, which, if they ever made it here, would happily obliterate the entire population."

"Vanto told us a bit."

"Ah. Good. Then maybe you partially understand why I haven't made my way home yet on my own?"

"Partially. Vanto also said something about children?" She tried to keep the accusation out of her tone, she really did. But judging by the way he slid his eyes away and slumped slightly, she knew she failed.

Ezra swallowed thickly, wishing she hadn't brought that up already, feeling like their reunion was already ruined. "Those… Kriff. I don't even know how to explain. It's easier to show you."

Sabine raised a purple dyed eyebrow. "All right. I know this is a little forward, but please just answer me this; are you in a committed relationship with someone?"

Ezra's head turned back towards her so fast, he almost gave himself whiplash. "No!" he said emphatically, eyes wide and sincere. "I'm not. I never have been." Seeing the relief in her eyes, feeling it in her signature, he glanced over his shoulder at Ahsoka and Rex, who were blatantly eavesdropping, and deciding that he didn't care; he quietly added, "I've been waiting for you."

Sabine's breath caught, and as she stared up into those blue, blue eyes that had always shown his feelings so plainly, she couldn't help the words that escaped her mouth. "So have I."

It felt like his heart screeched to a stop and then jolted back into motion double time. One hundred percent of his attention now on her, he whispered, "Really?"

Sabine glanced at the wall they were heading right for where the tunnel curved to the right and casually added her hand to the steering yoke, turning the speeder for him before they crashed. "Really."

Ezra blinked himself back to awareness of what he was supposed to be doing as the edge of the speeder scraped the wall with a shower of sparks. "Fragging moron. Drive first, do a happy dance and kiss the girl later," he muttered to himself under his breath.

Everyone heard him, of course, sending the other occupants of the speeder into peals of laughter as he drove with ears turning red from embarrassment.

By the end of the three minute speeder ride, everyone else had shed their winter wear to avoid overheating, and Ezra had prompted Rex into filling in the silence by asking him about how the war with the Empire was going.

Rex had only just finished talking about the battle above Yavin when they arrived at the end of the tunnel.

Ezra brought his speeder to a stop and turned around to gawk at Rex. "Hang on. Did you just say that a moon sized, planet destroying, super weapon was brought down by a single shot to an exhaust pipe by the son of Anakin Skywalker?"

Rex chuckled. "Yeah. I did. My General's son is so much like him, it almost hurts to look at him sometimes."

Ezra shook his head. "Force, you better save the rest for when I'm sitting down. I don't want to accidentally run over someone."

"We have a lot of stories to exchange, Ezra," Ahsoka said kindly. "Taking us to your home first sounds like a good place to start."

"Right." Ezra turned back around and drove out of the tunnel, into an absolutely massive cavern that had an underground river running through the middle of it and an entire city built around it, with picturesque bridges crossing the river at intervals. The light source appeared to come from the ceiling of the cavern, and looked like it might be the reflected light of the sun, if the glint of a mirror was anything to go by. The city streets were filled with blue skinned people of all ages, most of which waved cheerily at Ezra and looked at Sabine, Ahsoka, and Rex curiously as he drove them past houses and shops along the main road that ran beside the river. There were only a few other speeders on the streets, all of which were loaded with goods, indicating to Sabine that this was a culture that didn't mind getting a little exercise to move from one place to another.

Ezra came to a stop almost at the end of the cavern and indicated a huge set of steps that led up to ornamentally carved doors set in the rock wall, a guard in white standing on either side. "Over there is the House Palace. We'll head there later for dinner. The leaders of the Chiss want to meet you all."

"Will Thrawn be there?" Sabine asked.

"Yes. He's on the War Council."

"I take it he's not our enemy anymore?"

Ezra snorted softly as he turned the speeder to the right down a smaller side road. "Technically, he never was. He was playing the Empire the whole time he worked for them, as possibly one of the best undercover spies of all time, I think."

"Hunh. Not sure if my opinion is just going to up and change just like that, but I'll keep an open mind."

Ezra glanced at her, smiling softly. "That's all I ask. About everything."

"Okay." She touched his bare hand with her own, letting him know that she got the point. She wouldn't judge him for the children until she knew the story, which she had a feeling was going to be a lot more interesting than him accidentally knocking up a few girls in a moment of mindless passion.

After giving her a questioning glance asking for permission, he turned his hand over and laced his fingers through hers as he drove the last little bit of their journey. Sabine's heart stuttered at how right that felt. She squeezed his fingers to let him know that she approved of the gesture.

Ezra drove the speeder sled up to another set of big doors set in a cavern wall and came to a stop behind a few more already parked along the wall. "This is me," he said encouraging everyone to jump out. He snatched up Sabine's bag before she could, leaving her to carry only her helmet and winter coat, which earned him a mock scowl.

Ezra just grinned at her and then led the way up the steps. Sabine helped Ahsoka with her bags instead.

As Ezra approached, the doors slid open for him automatically and he led them down another short tunnel carved out of rock which opened up to another cavern not quite as big as the first. It was also teaming with people and buildings. "This is actually the science center," he said as he led them out into the mini city, "But I have an apartment in this area, as do most of the scientists and their subjects."

Sabine came to a dead halt, inspiring Ezra to stop and look back at her, and Ahsoka to almost run into her back. "Ezra, are you saying that you're a science experiment?"

He raised a brow. "What. You don't think I could be a scientist?"

She just gave him a deeper frown.

He sighed. "Never could get anything past you. Yes, technically, I'm a science experiment."

"WHY?"

"Because I can still use the Force, and none of their people can past the age of ten. They want to know why."

That inspired gawking looks from everyone.

Ezra grinned. "It's all right. I don't mind helping them out... Now." He held his hand out for her but she pretended not to see it, still miffed. Ezra rolled his eyes, knowing her moods, and said, "Come. We'll drop off your stuff and I'll show you what I'm talking about."

"Oh, you better," Sabine muttered, not pleased that Ezra was being used as a guinea pig for these people.

Ezra led them to a tall building that butted up against the cavern wall and went all the way to the ceiling. They rode a turbolift all the way to the top floor. The doors opened up to a huge apartment, as Ezra had said it would be. The open concept space appeared to take up the entire floor of the building and had glass windows all along two of the four walls, looking out over the city and giving a view of another piece of the river and a small greenery filled park that they hadn't seen from the entrance of the cavern.

Sabine walked to the center of the big living space and dropped her things and Ahsoka's second bag on a couch. She turned in a circle, jaw practically hanging down to her neck. "Ezra. This is kriffing nice! An apartment like this on Mandalore would cost a fortune!"

Ezra shrugged, dropping her bag beside Ahsoka's, the couch quickly becoming piled with winter wear and bags. "One of the perks of being a science experiment and a General in the Chiss/Human Army; the apartment comes with the job. And I make a decent wage that I basically just use to buy food and presents, so I've got quite a bit saved up."

"Presents for your kids?" Sabine couldn't help asking.

"Sabine!" Ahsoka scolded softly.

Ezra raised a hand. "No. It's okay. She has a right to ask. Yes, presents for my kids." He held his hand out to Sabine invitingly again (not one to give up). "Come. I think you should meet them before this gets any more awkward."

Despite her misgivings about his children, Sabine took his hand and laced her fingers through his again, letting the contact sooth away her worries. Holding his hand felt like the most natural thing in the galaxy, and, not for the first time, she mentally scolded herself for not moving their friendship to the next level long before he'd left with the Purrgil and Thrawn. _So many years wasted. Maybe he would have found a different way to win if I'd been his girl back then. Or maybe it was the only way and it would have hurt even more when he left._

She would never know the answer. And maybe it was better that way.

Sabine let him led her back into the lift, where Ahsoka and Rex joined them, also holding hands and looking amused by their younger counterparts' journey into the realm of romanticism. They travelled downwards and then back out into the reflected light of day, and then walked down the road to another big building that took up the entire height of the cavern.

"This is the Ozyly-Esehembo building, or Force Central, as I like to call it," Ezra said as he led them inside into a typical lobby looking area. He merely waved at the Chiss receptionist and continued on down a hallway, stopping at another turbolift and stepping in.

"What does ozyly-esehembo mean?" Sabine asked as they rose up a few floors, determined to start learning the language.

Ezra huffed with amusement. He looked at Ahsoka, who was all but leaning against Rex. "You're going to love this. Ozyly-Esehembo literally translates to Sky Walker."

The Togrutan's sky blue eyes widened to nearly impossible proportions. "What?! As in Anakin?"

Ezra shook his head as the lift came to a stop and the doors opened, but no one moved to disembark yet. "No it's just a coincidence. Their Force users are called Sky Walkers because they used to use them to navigate through hyperspace, not having enough navi computers to supply all of their ships."

"But you just said none of them kept their Force powers past the age of ten," Sabine protested.

He smiled grimly. "I did. They were using younglings to do an adult's job. I've tried the navigating thing, and it's incredibly draining. And that was only for a couple of hours. I don't know how the children did it."

"Please tell me the children aren't used like that anymore," Ahsoka all but begged.

"They're not. I put a stop to that right away, encouraging them to steal more Imperial ships to make up the difference. I thought at first that the children were losing their Force abilities after the age of ten because they were burnt out, but that's not it, cause it's still happening."

"Strange," Ahsoka said, head tilting slightly as she thought. "I've never heard of that happening to any other people on such a uniform scale. The occasional person, yes, and usually from burnout, like you speculated. I wonder what's causing it? Something in their genetics?"

"That is the current theory." Ezra stepped out of the elevator, still holding Sabine by the hand, and into a big open space filled with children, most of them girls, and demonstrating Force abilities as they played various games. A few supervising adults watched over them and made notes on datapads. He squeezed Sabine's hand and then let it go. "And that's where I come in."

Ezra hadn't been in the room for more than two seconds before one of the blue skinned boys noticed him and cried, "Dad!" in Cheunh.

Within moments, he was surrounded by the only five boys in the room, all the same age of approximately six years old, all identical with young versions of Ezra's face (if he were blue skinned), and sporting his sapphire eyes, unlike all the other Chiss, who had red eyes. It was hard to tell if their dark blue hair came from Ezra, or their Chiss half, because the Chiss also sported various shades of blue hair. (In that aspect, Ezra fit right in.)

It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were partial clones of Ezra. And Sabine actually was a certified genius. The only question Sabine had left was whether or not Ezra's genetic template had been taken from him willingly or not.

She was guessing not. _I think he would have come home to me if they hadn't done this to him. But I understand why they did, if they're trying to make a Chiss who can keep their Force powers. Doesn't mean I like it, but I can understand._

Ezra laughed as the boys tackled him down to the ground and swarmed over him, hugging every part they could get their short arms around. "Boys! I was just here a few hours ago! You couldn't possible miss me this much already?" he said in Basic, even as he hugged them back en masse.

"But, you're gone so often, Daddy," the one clinging to his neck replied in the same language, easily taking the hint to talk in the planet's newly official second language.

"Yeah. We have to hug you whenever we get the chance," another added.

"To make up for the missing times," a third said.

Ezra carefully finagled his way into a kneeling position amongst the small herd of boys and they all automatically settled into a copying pose, reminding her of how Kanan used to sit when he was meditating. Ezra stroked a large hand over each of their messy heads in turn. "Remember what I said about finding me in the Force?"

The boys all nodded in sync.

"Well, that works for hugs too. You can send me a mental hug anytime you want. I promise I'll feel it and send you one back as long as I'm not so busy fighting or something that I have to have all of my concentration on something very important, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy," they chorused.

"Why don't we practice now?"

They nodded eagerly, and then as a unit, squinched their eyes shut.

Ezra beamed at them, shot a look of sheer pride at Sabine, and then closed his own eyes, hands settling on his knees.

Sabine's heart melted in her chest, seeing how much he loved the boys. She looked over at Ahsoka, who was wiping a tear off the corner of her eye, and mouthed, "Frag,"

"I know," Ahsoka mouthed back.

 _He's never going to leave them,_ Sabine thought. _Not permanently._

_The question is, am I willing to stay here with him?_

She looked down at her handsome, softly smiling man, surrounded by little copies of himself, and the answer was almost instantly, _YES!_

_He's worth it._

_Besides… He's fighting a war. I can't let him do that by himself anymore._


	3. Sons

**Sons:**

After he’d given each of the little copies of himself a mental hug and receiving the same in return, Ezra looked up at Sabine to see her reaction to his little family.

The expression on her face and the calm acceptance radiating from her signature had him mentally sighing in relief. Any remaining doubts he'd had about waiting for her went fleeing from his mind. He knew, just from looking at her, that she'd made up her mind about what she intended to do.

_Now all I have to do is get her alone so that we can figure out how we’re going to make this work._

Ezra’s opportunity to talk to Sabine alone wouldn’t arrive until much later in the evening, though.

Before going to the promised dinner with the Chiss Aristocra, they spent a few more hours with his clone sons, and it was some of the best and most entertaining hours of his life so far.

The boys, happy now that they’d greeted him, turned their attention to the people he’d brought with him.

The eldest by a couple of weeks over the youngest, being the leader of the group, was the first to rise to his feet and walk up to Sabine. He stared up at her, his head no higher than her thighs, a contemplative look on his face. And then he spoke. “You are covered in colour. You must be my daddy’s dream mate.”

Even though she already knew that he adored her, Ezra still flushed and mentally facepalmed.

Sabine blinked at the boy. “Ezra’s what?”

Surging to his feet with the rest of the boys copying him, Ezra strode the three steps over to his son and put an arm around the clever boy’s narrow shoulders. “Ummm, yeah. The boys kind of know you as the girl of my dreams. Literally,” he added with a kind of helpless shrug and half grin.

Sabine flashed him a knowing smirk and then knelt down in front of the boy who'd guessed who she was. “You’re right. I am Sabine, Ezra’s mate.” (Ezra did a mental happy dance to hear her confirm it.) “And who are you?”

The little boy puffed up his chest importantly. “I am Cody’ezbridge’in’a, the first born of us, and I am named after the great leader of all clones.”

Sabine glanced up at Ezra, an eyebrow raised. She’d heard Rex’s stories just as often as he had (probably more, now), and she knew what the name meant. Returning her focus to the six year old boy, she smiled softly. “It’s good to meet you, Cody. Can I call you Cody?”

As the boy nodded eagerly, Ezra turned his focus to see Rex and Ahsoka’s reaction to this, and he wasn’t disappointed. Ahsoka was blinking rapidly, moisture in her eyes, and Rex was looking back at him with wide eyes. “You didn’t.”

“I did,” Ezra said solemnly to the clone veteran. “It seemed fitting to me to give them the names of your fallen brothers in honour of their abbreviated lives.”

“Ezra…” Rex said, shaking his blond dyed head slowly. “I don’t know what… Thank you.”

Ahsoka rubbed her mate’s back soothingly.

Ezra smiled kind of bashfully. “It felt right.” Looking down, Ezra scanned the nearly identical faces of his boys and then pushed the second born forward with a gentle nudge, and then the next and the next until they stood in order beside Cody. “Boys, this is the Captain Rex that I told you about, the best clone soldier ever. Why don’t you introduce yourselves to him?”

“That’s really Captain Rex?” Cody said, bouncing on his toes.

“Really, really?” the boy beside him said.

Ezra squeezed their shoulders fondly. “It really is. And you can attack him in a minute.”

“Yay!” all five exclaimed at once.

Laughing, Ezra nudged boy number two in reminder.

“Right,” the boy said, stepping forward. “My name is Echo’ezbridge’ba. I’m really happy to meet you Captain Rex.”

Rex blinked rapidly, a smile forming. He knelt in front of the boys and beside Sabine. “You too, Echo.” Then he winked at the first boy in line. “And you, Cody.”

“Captain,” Cody said, grinning back, still bouncing subtly.

As Echo stepped back into line, the next stepped forward and saluted Rex. “Jesse’ezbridge’cssah, reporting for duty.”

Chuckling, Rex saluted the serious boy back. “Noted.”

Boy four stepped forward, grinning from ear to ear. “Case’ezbridge’vzo. I’m named after the hero of Umbara, Hardcase, but Dad thought my name was long enough, so it’s just Case.”

“I see,” Rex said, ruffling the boy’s shaggy blue hair. “Case is good, too. His best friend, Jesse, used to call him that when they thought no one else was listening.” 

Case and Jesse exchanged pleased looks. All the boys were very close to each other, but those two were a bit more inseparable than the rest.

The last boy stepped forward. “And I’m called Fives’ezbridge’vsah because I’m the fifth born. My name is awesome because I have a five at both the beginning and the end of it.”

Rex, Ahsoka, and Sabine all looked to Ezra for an explanation.

“The last part of their names is their number in Cheunh,” Ezra said with an apologetic shrug. “I had to fight for almost a year to give them names that were more than just the designation Ezbridge one, two, three, four, or five.” He looked down at his sons as they looked up at him adoringly, Jesse and Case hugging his legs. “My good boys deserved real names, didn’t you?”

“We did!” They chorused.

“And we love them,” Cody finished with for the group before he looked back at Rex. “We’re proud to carry the names of your brothers. They were all heroes.”

“Yes, they were,” Rex said softly, glancing up at Ezra, gratitude in his shining amber eyes.

“None more so than you, my brave Captain,” Ahsoka said as she stepped forward and stroked a loving hand over his blond buzz cut.

Looking up at his mate, Rex smiled and caught her hand, kissing the knuckles of which before he said laughingly, “If you say so.”

“I do,” Ahsoka said emphatically. “You always were my hero.”

Sabine and Ezra glanced at each other with knowing smirks as they watched the older couple get lost in each other’s eyes the same way they had years ago. _Now there’s a true love that will never die._

_Just like mine for Sabine._

Ezra’s crooked smile faded as his gaze caught with Sabine’s and the sudden knowledge that they could be just like Ahsoka and Rex struck them. She rose to her feet and leaned over the short people to touch his scarred cheek softly. “For the record, you’re my hero, Ezra Bridger,” she whispered. 

He raised a hand to capture hers and kissed her knuckles just like Rex had done. But decidedly more lingeringly. And his eyes never left Sabine’s searching dark amber ones.

Silence reigned in their little corner of the busy room as the two couples did the lovesick gaze thing. But only until Cody tugged on the hem of his uniform jacket a few seconds later.

“Dad?”

Ezra tore his gaze from Sabine’s and reluctantly dropped her hand. He looked down at his son. “Yeah, bud?”

“The orange lady with the wickedly awesome horns and lekku, that’s the warrior Jedi, Master Soka, right?”

“Yes, Cody. It is,” Ezra said with an apologetic grin at the lady in question, who was giving Ezra a raised eyebrow marking while her mate chuckled under his breath, rising to his feet as well.

“Master Soka?” she said.

“I may have embellished your title a bit. But you always were a Jedi Master to me, no matter what you called yourself.”

Ahsoka sighed softly, shaking her head. “I will never call myself a Jedi again, but I suppose it is true that I could have been a Master by the time I met you.”

“It’s true,” Ezra said firmly. “Even Kanan said so. We both looked up to you and we would have happily called ourselves whatever you did if you’d bothered to give yourself a different name than Jedi.”

Ahsoka shrugged slightly, a rueful twist to her full lips. “I never could think of anything appropriate. And Master Force User just sounds stupid,” she added with a roll of her big blue eyes.

Ezra laughed along with Rex and Sabine. “You could always do like the Chiss and call yourself a Master Sky Walker.”

He’d been mostly kidding, and Ahsoka seemed to think so too, at first. But as she opened her mouth to turn the suggestion down, a thoughtful look crossed her face. “You know, I once told a friend that I had been trained in the Skywalker Academy. I think that might actually be more accurate than anything else I could say.”

“Then go with it,” Ezra said encouragingly. “Everyone around here already calls me a Sky Walker anyway whenever they’re talking to me in Cheunh. They prefer it over Jedi because it’s theirs, I think.”

“That’s true,” Cody said from the vicinity of their knees, drawing everyone’s gazes downwards again. “The scientists here almost never call you a Jedi.”

“Yeah,” Echo added. “I hear them call you the Human Sky Walker or the Pale Sky Walker. But never a Jedi Knight.”

“So what would that make you?” Sabine joked. “A Knight Walker?”

Ezra snorted. “Very funny, but kind of accurate. I’ve spent more time in space over the last seven years than dirtside by far. And there’s not exactly much of that to go around down here.”

“Poor Ez,” Sabine teased. “I know how much you liked your dirt and grass. If you ever feel inspired to drag yourself home to Lothal, there’s lots of it just waiting for you to roll around in.”

Feeling wicked (and very pleased to hear that the grass had grown back after the Empire had done its best to destroy the planet), Ezra wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Only if you’ll roll around in it with me.”

Rex snorted, Ahsoka rolled her eyes, the boys sniggered, and Sabine gawked at him for a second before she smiled coyly. “Perhaps I could be persuaded.”

“I’ll do my best,” Ezra vowed, sounding dead serious.

Sabine‘s purple dyed eyebrows rose and their gazes locked again, so many unspoken promises flashing through their minds.

Only to be interrupted as Case tugged on his hem from the other side. “Daaad, it’s been more than minute; can we attack Captain Rex yet?”

Blinking, Ezra mentally shook himself out of the mental image he’d been indulging in of him and Sabine rolling around in the grass of Lothal… naked. He looked down at his nearly vibrating sons and grinned. “Sure. Go for it.”

Rex backed up with a look of comical horror on his face as a herd of blue boys suddenly swarmed him, a cacophony of identical voices bombarding him as their small bodies magically attached themselves to various parts of his much larger body.

“Rex! Play with us, Rex!” 

“Teach us how to fight, Captain Rex!”

“Tell me more about Hardcase!”

“Can I play with your blasters?”

“I want to be an ARC like Jesse.”

“Whoa, whoa!” Rex said as he pulled Cody off his shoulder where the boy had been perched and put him gently down on the ground before he gingerly extracted the blaster from the hands of Fives that he had somehow gotten a hold of. Rex holstered it and then pulled Echo and Jesse off of his neck and waist and parked them on the ground as well. Getting the point on their own, Case and Fives let go of his legs.

Rex gave them all a stern look. “All right, boys, if you want to learn how to be soldiers, then you’ll have to act like soldiers. And the first lesson is how to stand in line and listen respectfully to your superior officer. Got it?”

Like they’d been practicing their whole lives (because they nearly had), the boys were suddenly in a perfectly straight line with military straight postures and hands at their foreheads in a salute. “Sir, yes Sir!” they chanted.

Rex raised a dark brown eyebrow at Ezra. “I take it you’ve played this game before?”

Ezra shrugged, grinning. “Only once or twice. It’s very good for turning their energy into something more or less controlled.”

“No kidding,” Rex muttered. Then his focus returned to the boys and his expression returned to that of a no-nonsense Captain. “All right, cadets! Since you passed the first test, your next task is to show me how well you work as a unit. Let’s see you march together around the perimeter of the room with Cody taking point and the rest of you pairing up. Remember to keep your steps in sync with Cody’s.”

“Sir, yes Sir!” the boys chanted again, all failing miserably at keeping straight faces through their happiness.

Cody stepped out, marching deliberately, and the other boys fell in behind him seamlessly. The adults watched with indulgent smiles as they marched the perimeter of the room, drawing the attention of the twenty or so Chiss girls who’d been eyeballing them all curiously as they practiced their telekinetic abilities.

“Can we?” one of the older ones of about nine years old asked the grownup supervising them.

“I suppose,” the scientist said.

And just like that, the boys had a long snake of paired up girls following them, also in perfect step. 

Rex sidled up to Ezra’s side. (The one not occupied by Sabine, who’d moved to stand beside him when the boys attacked Rex.) “There’s just one question I have,” the older man said quietly.

“And what’s that?”

“I heard the word ‘born’ more than once. Were your boys not made in vats?”

Ezra felt a slow rush of heat travel up from his neck at the suddenly curious look Sabine was giving him. “Uhhhhh. No. They weren’t. The Chiss don’t have that technology here. If you look at my sons very carefully, you’ll notice that they’re not quite as identical as you think. That’s because they all have different mothers who were all Force sensitive as children.”

“So they’re not clones?” Sabine asked, her tone rising dangerously.

“Welllllll,” Ezra winced at the narrow eyed look she gave him. “Technically no. And yes.”

“Ezra!”

“I had nothing to do with the making of the boys, I promise! All I did was provide the DNA for the scientists to do whatever with. I don’t know exactly how it worked, but they manipulated everything so that the female donors’ DNA only contributed twenty-five percent of the overall end result. The rest is supposed to be perfect copies of me.”

Sabine frowned at him for ten endless seconds before she huffed. “Fine. I can live with that. Just so long as you weren’t getting busy with a string of women to make the boys.”

Ezra shook his head rapidly. “No. Nope. Never. I wouldn’t do that to you. Especially back then when I thought I was going back home as soon as possible.”

Her eyes narrowed again, and Ezra realized he’d trekked out into dangerous waters again. _Karabast._

“But you’d do it now if I hadn’t shown up?”

Feeling like his face was on fire, Ezra glanced at Rex for some sort of help and only received a rather epic smirk for his trouble. He looked back at Sabine. “Honest answer?”

“Honest answer.” Her tone sounded like durasteel.

“No, I wouldn’t have. But give it another five or ten years, I think I might have gotten lonely enough to give in. The scientists actually wanted me to do it the natural way to start with before I convinced them that gene manipulation was probably going to be more successful in the long run.”

“Good for you,” Sabine said, heavy on the sarcasm. But at least she didn’t look like she was going to shoot him anymore, so that was a plus. She huffed again. “I suppose I wouldn’t blame you for turning to another girl if you were still all alone after so long, but I don’t want to think about it ever again, okay?”

“Not a problem,” Ezra said, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her into his side. He daringly ducked down to kiss her cheek. “You’re the only girl for me and always have been.”

Sabine put an arm around his waist in return and copied his gesture. “Right answer, Bridger.”

Rex and Ahsoka, amused by this, were grinning at them. “Aren’t they cute, Soka?”

“Like a basket of kittens, Rexi,” she answered. Then the Togrutan nodded her head to the perfect line of children who were all looking at them expectantly, having finished their lap of the large gymnasium. “But your troops are ready for new orders, so you might want to take care of that.”

Rex coughed. “Right.” He looked around the gym a little frantically until he spotted a big crate full of red and blue foam balls. Face lighting up, he looked at the children. “Who wants to play Clones versus Battle Droids?”

Familiar with the game, since Ezra had taught them (having learnt the dodge ball game from Rex years ago as part of his ‘training’), the children shrieked with ‘Yeses!’ and Rex strode for the crate with Ahsoka following to help hand out balls and split the children up into teams.

Sabine, never one to turn down an opportunity to throw things at Ezra, grinned at him and tugged him into moving. “Shall we?”

“Why not?” Ezra said as they followed the pack. “I still owe you for the last time we played.”

“And you still won’t be able to hit me,” she taunted, grabbing a red ball from the air that Rex tossed her way.

Ezra caught his own blue ball and glared at her with mock menace. “We’ll see about that.”


	4. Disclosures

**Disclosures:**

Over the past few hours of Force training disguised as playtime, Sabine had somehow fallen totally and completely in love with Ezra’s clone sons.

They were just so kriffing cute, each with their own personalities, and yet all embodying what made Ezra… Ezra. Don’t ask her what that was, because she couldn’t really explain it, other than to say that the teenage boy she’d fallen in love with still had it as a grown man and that whatever it was made him one of the most likable people in the galaxy – his ability to make friends with pretty much everyone (even Thrawn!) was proof enough of that.

 _Shab, he even won over some of the Darksiders. No doubt if Darth Vader had just spent ten minutes talking to Ezra instead of trying to kill him, he would have tried to recruit Ezra to the other side too,_ Sabine thought with a mental head shake as she watched from the doorway of the boys’ large bedroom, located a few floors up from the gymnasium, while Ezra helped his sons with their bedtime preparations.

It was obviously a well rehearsed routine as each boy took turns in the separate refresher and then emerged sparkling clean from the sonic shower and dressed in matching pajamas. From there, they’d brush their teeth at the sink under Ezra’s watchful and proud gaze, hug their father’s waist and receive a hug and a hair ruffle in return. Then the boy would climb into one of the five comfortable looking child-sized beds available and Ezra would tuck them in with a final kiss to their messy hair that looked just like his when she’d first met him so many years ago.

Sabine’s heart melted a little more with each kiss and whispered ‘Love you, Daddy’.

Sabine glanced at Ahsoka and Rex, who were parked in the doorway with her – which was a bit of a squish, to say the least, but they didn’t want to intrude on Ezra’s time with his sons while still wanting to watch – and found the older couple looking almost longingly on the scene. Rex, being a clone, had unfortunately been designed sterile so that the millions of Fett-based gene carriers couldn’t contaminate the galaxy and cause a possible inbreeding crisis in the future. Which meant that they couldn’t have children of their own even if Togrutan/Human hybrids weren't beyond rare. They’d mentioned once or twice that they were fine with that, not needing children to make their lives feel complete, but now, after watching Ezra with his sons and seeing how they’d enjoyed playing with the younglings earlier, Sabine wondered if they’d change their minds about that. _Adoption is always an option, after all._

_Speaking of which, if I marry Ezra… Scratch that, WHEN I marry Ezra – let’s be realistic here, I did wait seven years for him, I’m not going to change my mind now - I’m going to be an instant mother of five. That’s going to take some time to wrap my head around, no question. And when we have children of our own? Yeesh, that’s going to be a lot of mouths to feed._

_Good thing I’m rich and already built us a kriffing huge house on Lothal._

_Hera and Jacen will certainly enjoy having more people around to occupy the space. And the boys are close to Jacen’s age, so that should go over well._

When all the boys were snuggled into their beds, Ezra walked over to Sabine with too many emotions to name reflecting in his sapphire eyes before he took a deep breath and turned around to look over his sons one more time. “Sleep well, boys. May the Force bring you sweet dreams.”

“No story tonight, Daddy?” Cody asked.

Ezra shook his head. “Sorry, bud. I have to take Sabine, Ahsoka, and Rex to meet with the Ascendency next. Tomorrow night, though, promise. And I’ll be back first thing in the morning to help your teacher with your school lessons.”

They boys huffed a resigned sigh as one and then Cody spoke for all of them again. “All right. Night, Dad.”

Ezra gave his son an approving smile as he reached for the light switch beside the door. “Night, Cody. Night, boys.”

“Night, Dad!” the rest chorused as Ezra dimmed the light to the lowest setting, leaving the room in a state of twilight suitable for sleeping but bright enough to keep the boogie monsters at bay. 

Sabine and her long-time companions backed into the hallway so that Ezra could close the door. He then looked at Sabine as he rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. “So… What do you think?”

Sabine couldn’t resist the urge to tease him a little as the confident father figure he’d been portraying suddenly vanished and he nearly resembled his gawky teenage self again. (A taller, more filled out version, but still…) She crossed her arms over her armoured chest and adopted a contemplative expression. “I don’t know… They all seem to be strong with the Force, intelligent, and appropriately coordinated and agile; seems to me like the Chiss’ somewhat more primitive cloning process worked.”

“Sabine,” he whined. “That’s not what I meant, but… thank you?”

Hiding a smirk, she raised an eyebrow. “Oh, what did you mean?”

Ezra huffed loudly and ran a frustrated hand through his hair, which had Rex hiding a grin behind his hand and Ahsoka shaking her head at the two of them even as her eyes twinkled with not-so-hidden mirth. “Come on, you know what I meant. Are you actually going to make me spell it out for you? In front of them?”

Sabine let her grin loose. “Yep.” _I almost forgot how easy he is to tease._

“Fine,” he huffed again, then jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the door. “My boys, do you think… Could you… The fact that I have them… Is that… Arggghhh, this is hard.” He paused to glare at them. “Why do you all have to look at me like that? Would you please stop snickering worse than a pack of sugar-high younglings?” 

The guilty culprits (all of them) schooled their expressions into something resembling serious. “Sorry, Ezra,” Sabine, said, almost succeeding in sounding like she meant it as she touched his arm with a placating hand. “Continue.”

Ezra covered her hand with his own and took a deep breath before blurting out nearly all at once, “Does this change how you feel about me?”

Now feeling guilty for making him work so hard to get a confession from her, Sabine was very serious when she squeezed his forearm and then turned her hand over to lace their fingers together. “No, Ez. The fact that you have sons doesn’t change my feelings. In fact, it only strengthens them. Watching you be such a good father is not something I expected to witness until a year or two after I’d found you, but it only confirms what an amazing person you are and that I was right to dedicate myself to someone I didn’t see for seven whole years.”

“Sabine,” he whispered softly, blue eyes visibly melting with the same emotions she was feeling.

He started to raise his free hand to touch her face, but she interrupted by smiling suddenly and adding, “Not to mention, your kids are beyond adorable and I’d be very upset if someone else ended up raising them with you.” There was enough possessive warning in her tone that he couldn’t possibly miss it, reminding him that she was still the claiming kind of crazy Mando that he’d so daringly and blatantly fallen for so many years ago.

His whole face lit up – maybe even his entire body - and he grinned back at her. He cupped her cheek, burying his long fingers in her hair in the process and then leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Thank you. I’m holding you to that.” He released her face but kept her hand as he turned his beaming self to look at the other smiling couple. “Who’s ready for dinner with some stuffy-arsed royals?”

* * *

Ezra felt like he was floating amongst the stars as they made their way out of Force Central and meandered through the underground city to the palace. Besides the fact that Sabine liked his children, she’d not only implied that she’d be marrying him, she’d also implied that she would like a child of their own in a year or so. And that made him feel like he’d just won the jackpot of good fortune.

If she’d said the same back when he was eighteen and still too young to know better, he would undoubtedly have been in a state of euphoria for all of a minute before sheer panic set in at the thought of being a father.

Turns out he still ended up being a parent at nineteen years old, but he’d had such little to do with the raising of his boys back then that it hardly counted. He’d been away at war more often than not, had zilch in the way of influence with the Chiss people, and couldn’t even mind trick the strong willed race into letting him have any say into how they were taught. At least, as the years passed, the scientists grew to respect his ideas at about the same rate as Ezra’s rank within the army elevated and he became more accepted in their society due to the changes he and Thrawn had made to how they fought the war against the Vong - including manipulating a ton of Imperial ships and Human personnel into their army and convincing them that they were still working for the Empire.

He still wasn’t allowed to keep the boys at his apartment, no matter how many times he’d asked, but at least he actually felt like their father now and not just a gene donor.

He was looking forward to raising a child with Sabine from the beginning and seeing all the steps that he’d missed with his sons. _Maybe as soon as a year from now, too. Holy kriff._

While they walked through the cavern dedicated to scientists and their pursuits, Ezra spent much of his time gazing down at Sabine with his heart in his eyes and rubbing his thumb over hers every other step or so. Somewhere in there, there was also a conversation taking place regarding all the changes and improvements that had occurred on Lothal since he’d left, but much of it went right over his head beyond the awareness that Lothal undoubtedly now looked like how he’d seen it in his visions.

Until Sabine casually mentioned that she’d lived in his old tower for the first couple years after he’d left, that is.

Ezra’s understandably distracted brain snapped into focus. “You did? Surely you could have found something nicer to live in?! That tower was a dump and didn’t even have hot water in the refresher!”

She shrugged slightly, an interesting faint blush crossing her cheekbones. “Okay, technically I lived in the Lothhawk for the first couple months until I finished the renovations on your tower, but yes, I did. I…” She glanced at Ahsoka and Rex as her cheeks darkened further but then forged on with what she was saying, perhaps to make up for the embarrassment she’d put him through a few minutes ago. “…felt closer to you there.”

“Oh, Sabine,” he said, shaking his head as all the years of aching loneliness settled in his chest once more. “I would have done the same. Actually…” Now it was his turn to flush. “…I, ummm, kind of stole one of your socks so that I’d have something of yours that you wouldn’t miss too much and would fit in a pocket.”

“You didn’t!” she gasped in false outrage, her amber eyes laughing at him.

“I did. Still have it. It’s under my pillow if you want it back.”

She laughed out loud as Rex and Ahsoka made their own noises of amusement. “I guarantee I don’t have its mate anymore, so you might as well keep it.” Her expression changed slightly and she nudged him with her shoulder. “Hey, at least you didn’t take a pair of my underwear like most guys would have.”

Ezra’s gaze slid away from hers as he focused very deliberately on the road in front of them. “I almost did,” he mumbled, which inspired a chorus of snorts from his companions. “Only thing that stopped me was the abject fear that Thrawn would have me searched – which he did – and find a pair of silky purple panties on my person and come to completely the wrong conclusion.”

“Ezra,” Sabine shook her head at him in a familiar look of amused resignation that she’d given him countless times in the past. Despite the situation, he thrilled to see it again, marking this as reality as opposed to a wonderful dream that would end in heartache when he woke up. (Been there, done that.) “I happen to remember for a fact that the only purple panties I owned at the time were the ones I was wearing for at least two days before Hera came back with the Ghost and I could finally change into fresh clothes. And the fact that you almost took them… That’s just disturbing.”

“Agreed,” Ahsoka said.

“No it isn’t,” Rex said with a conspiratorial grin at Ezra. “I’m sure they smelled better than fine if Ahsoka's are anything to go by.”

 _They totally did,_ Ezra thought, but not daring to say it since he felt like he’d probably grossed Sabine out enough already. 

“Rex!” the Togrutan said, sounding and looking appropriately shocked, but not actually feeling it if the amusement and vague hint of desire she was radiating into the Force was anything to go by. Ezra tried not to think about that last part too much. 

Sabine just shook her head at the other couple and then turned her attention back to Ezra. “What am I supposed to do with you?”

“Love me anyway like Ahsoka with Rex?” he suggested hopefully, giving her his best puppy look while pulling their joined hands up to his heart and pressing hers against his chest, bringing them to a stop in the process.

The girl with even more vibrant colour in her Force signature than on her body rolled her eyes and sighed exaggeratedly. “If I must.” She then belied her put-upon tone with a soft smile and a look in her eyes that said she was enjoying their banter.

Ezra squeezed her hand and raised it to his mouth for a lingering kiss to her fingertips, eyes shining back down at her. “You must,” he murmured back.

A large, tanned and calloused hand waving between their faces broke their locked gazes. “Hey! Save it for later, I’m hungry!” Rex said, drawing both of their focus.

Sabine sighed and pulled their hands away from the vicinity of Ezra’s mouth and back down to their sides and started them walking gain. “Fine. Later. If you hadn’t also been separated from Ahsoka for years, I’d be grumbling at you for not understanding, but I know you do.”

“Yeah, I do,” Rex said softly, falling into step beside Sabine as Ahsoka took his hand and gave the clone a very love-filled look, which he returned. “But I still don’t need to see you make goo-goo eyes at each other while my stomach gnaws on its own lining.”

“Don’t mind him,” Ahsoka said apologetically. “The gene-therapy drugs have left him hungrier and grumpier than a starving nexu as his body repairs itself.”

“Understandable,” Ezra said with a laugh at the same time as Rex grumbled out, “I’m not that bad.”

“Yes, you are,” Sabine and Ahsoka said together like they’d done so a hundred times before, causing Rex to glower at them.

Ezra chuckled again at poor Rex, being ganged up on by the females, and then wracked his brain for a conversation changer for the other man’s sake. He came up with something Sabine had said earlier. “Hey, what’s the Lothhawk? The name is awesome, whatever it is.”

Sabine looked back at him, her eyes lighting up. “Oh, that’s your Kom’rk. Gauntlet. Whatever. I named it.”

“And painted it,” Ahsoka supplied with a smirk.

“And painted it,” Sabine said with a shrug. “It’s silver, orange, and purple now instead of a flying advertisement for Maul. You know me; if I can paint it, I will.”

Ezra grinned down at his little artist, pleased with her choice of name and colours (orange was his favourite, and purple, hers). “Oh, I know. And I would have been surprised if you hadn’t. So… Where is it now?”

“I left it on Lothal with Hera. We didn’t need two ships to cart around three people while we searched for you. But don’t worry, I’m sure she’s taking excellent care of it.”

“Assuming she’s not using it to teach Jacen and the other younglings how to fly to spare her own ships, that is,” Rex said with a smirk.

Ezra’s head whipped hard to the left and he stared at Rex over Sabine’s head. “Who?!”


End file.
